Amal Clooney 'Threatened with Arrest' in Egypt for exposing flaws in judicial system.

Amal Clooney 'Threatened with Arrest' in Egypt for exposing flaws in judicial system. (Naharnet).

British human rights lawyer Amal Clooney claimed in an interview published Saturday that she was threatened with arrest in Egypt after identifying flaws in the judicial system that later contributed to the convictions of three Al-Jazeera journalists.

Clooney, a rights lawyer who married Hollywood star George Clooney in a lavish Venice ceremony last year, helped compile a report for the International Bar Association in February 2014 that raised questions about the independence of judges and prosecutors in Egypt.

"When I went to launch the report, first of all they stopped us from doing it in Cairo," she told the Guardian newspaper.

"They said: 'Does the report criticize the army, the judiciary, or the government?' We said: 'Well, yes.' They said: 'Well then, you’re risking arrest,'" said Clooney, who is one of the lawyers representing one of the trio of Al-Jazeera reporters currently detained in Cairo.

One of the recommendations in Clooney's report was to end the practice that allows Egyptian officials to handpick judges in certain politicized cases.

"That recommendation wasn't followed, and we've seen the results of that in this particular case where you had a handpicked panel led by a judge who is known for dispensing brutal verdicts. And this one was no different," she said.

Egypt's top court on Thursday ordered a retrial of Australian Peter Greste, Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed, but kept the journalists in custody pending a new hearing.

Fahmy -- whom Clooney represents -- and Greste are seeking deportation, while Mohamed's wife said she was looking at ways to get her husband out of Egypt.

Clooney said she hoped that Fahmy's deportation would go ahead "in fairly quick terms", expressing little confidence in a retrial.

"I don't see how the prosecution can proceed again in a trial process even if the judges were to be constituted properly this time around. I don't see how they could fix the lack of evidence," she said. Read the full story here.

Egypt court accepts appeal of Al-Jazeera journalists, orders retrial.

Egypt court accepts appeal of Al-Jazeera journalists, orders retrial. (AlAhram).

Egypt's Court of Cassation accepted Thursday an appeal filed against sentences handed down to three jailed Al-Jazeera journalists and ordered a retrial to be scheduled.

The three were not granted bail, however, meaning that they will remain behind the bars, after one year in detention.

Journalists of the Doha-based network, Egyptian-Canadian and Cairo bureau chief Mohamed Fahmy, Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed and Australian correspondent Peter Greste, were sentenced in June to jail terms ranging from seven to 10 years on charges of spreading false news and aiding the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.

The defendants denied the allegations saying they were simply doing their jobs.

The case stirred international uproar.

Diplomatic representations from the Australian and Canadian embassies were present at the Thurday court session that was characterised by heightened security.

The defendants' lawyers had appealed the criminal court's ruling, saying it was faulty for a number of reasons, including breaching due process rights of defence and including deficiencies in reasoning.

Lawyers said the defendants were physically and psychologically assaulted and forced to confess to crimes they did not commit.

The defendants did not attend the brief hearing.

Defence lawyer Mostafa Nagi said the Court of Cassation, Egypt's highest appeal court, is not entitled to order the release of defendants and thus their remaining behind the bars was expected. Nagi said he expected a retrial within a month.

"This is certainly a positive step," Nagi told Ahram Online. Read the full story here.